A. J. Muste

The A.J. Muste Memorial Institute was established in 1974, to carry on the legacy of this great pacifist - advocates racial and sexual equality, non violence and labor rights, and opposes nuclear power and death penalty.

Abraham Johannes Muste was one of the six children born to Martin Muste (a coachman in Zeeland province in Netherlands) and Adriana. When Abraham was six, the family decided to migrate to America.

The family joined Adriana’s four brothers in Grand Rapids, Michigan, which had a large number of Dutch immigrants. In 1896, he and his family members became naturalized American citizens.

He graduated with a B.A degree from Hope College in Holland, Michigan, in 1905. At college, he was an all-rounder - a good scholar, basketball team captain, and member of the baseball team.

After graduation, he taught Greek and Latin in Iowa. In 1906, he studied philosophy at New York and Columbia Universities. He was immensely influenced by the lectures of William James and John Dewey.

He was appointed pastor of the Fort Washington Collegiate Church in Manhattan. He attended the Union Theological Seminary very near his parish, and graduated from there with a Bachelor of Divinity degree in 1913.

He began to incline towards social gospel, a movement which treated social justice issues with Christian ethics. He voted for Socialist Party of America candidate Eugene V. Debs in the Presidential elections of 1912.

He became a member of the Fellowship of Reconciliation formed by pacifist religious organizations in 1916. When the U.S entered World War I the following year, he resigned as pastor.

For some time, he worked for the Civil Liberties Bureau, which provided legal aid for the needy, and then in 1919, shifted to Providence, Rhode Island, and registered as a Quaker minister.

In 1919, he led the textile workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts, in a nonviolent strike and was jailed for a week. Finally, both sides agreed on shorter working hours and a 12% wage hike.

In 1956, he founded the magazine, ‘Liberation’, an anti war forum, and was the member of the War Resisters League. He supported civil rights, opposed McCarthyism during the Cold War, and denounced Communism.